1

Reviving the Professional Culture

Jessica Quap

College of Education, Grand Canyon University

EAD 513-0503: Shaping a School Culture

Karla Carlson

December 9, 2020
 2

Scenario Summary

Beginning July 2021, I will become principal of Maynard High School, which will

begin its 3rd year in existence Fall 2021. As of the end of the 2020-21 school year, the school

building served 1,100 students in grades 9-11 with 45 teaching staff members. Beginning the

2021-22 school year, the building will serve 1,450 students with 54 teaching staff members.

In order to serve the upcoming population, the administrative staff will consist of 1

principal, myself, and 3 assistance principals, one for each grade level. Each principal will take

on a different portion of the administrative responsibilities on campus which include,

curriculum and instruction, discipline, CTE courses and student support/school culture. Each

principal will also be assigned a grade level to follow from 9th through 12th grade. It is

believed that with a consistent teacher with each grade level, known as looping teachers,

students benefit from increased attendance, higher academic achievements and reduced

discipline referrals (Grant, Richardson & Forsten, 2019). The same benefits have been shown

to exist in my experience in school administration.

The office staff will consist of a receptionist, an attendance clerk, an administrative

assistant to the principal and 2 administrative assistance for all assistant principals. Currently

there are 3 school counselors with a 4th to be hired. With this new counseling position,

counselors will loop with students in the same manner as administrators from 9th grade to 12th

grade. All school counselors will handle student graduation plans for their assigned grade level.

Testing duties will be assigned to 2 counselors while general student counseling needs will be

assigned to the remaining 2 counselors.

 3

The campus administration will fill 16 teaching positions, 9 of those being core teachers

and 7 being electives and support staff. 9 of the 16 positions represent newly budgeted teacher

positions and 7 being positions to be filled because of staff turnover/retirement. All staff will

be thoroughly trained in the teacher evaluation process within the first in-service school days

with the expectation that all teachers will receive 2 full evaluations for 5 consecutive years

beginning with the 2021-22 school year. Consistent evaluation records have not existed prior to

this year. All previous evaluations will not be used in an official capacity to evaluate teachers

in any way.

Beginning July 2021, the district curriculum and instruction team will develop a full,

researched based curriculum and scope and sequence for each subject taught at the school. The

updated curriculum will be taught with fidelity upon all staff members being fully trained in its

design. This training will take place during summer training sessions taking the place of

previous summer learning opportunities left up to each teacher and staff member. A detailed

professional learning plan and schedule for the entire school year will be designed and

published by the district curriculum and instruction department along with the team of campus

administrators. Each professional learning opportunity for teachers and staff will align directly

with the district improvement plan and campus improvement, which will both get a rewrite and

update over the summer of 2021. Along with the curriculum and instruction summer training,

days assigned as in-service days before school starts will be 60% professional development and

PLC training and 40% teacher work time in their classrooms with most of the teacher work

time in their rooms being toward the end of the in-service period.

Mission , Vision and Outcomes

 4

The current mission and vision statements have been updated as of the final staff

meeting before beginning Summer 2021. All teacher and staff members participated in the

development of the mission and vision by articulating their collective set of core beliefs. This

set of beliefs was constructed using a strategy from “Creating a Love and Logic School

Culture” by Jim Fay in which staff brought a list of beliefs that are important to them as

teachers based on a suggested list provided to them. The staff then met in random groups to

determine the top 5 or 6 priority core beliefs of each group after which each group presented

their beliefs to the whole group in order to solicit agreement among the staff of their core

beliefs. Administrators collected data on each belief as it was presented. Time was given to

any group or belief that needs to be revised. The following Mission and Vision statements

were developed based on these core beliefs.

It is the vision of Maynard High School to inspire and empower all students to lead

extraordinary lives and embrace all the possibilities of their future. We will achieve this

mission by providing research based and data driven instruction in critical thinking skills, a

global perspective and a nurturing environment based on the respect for the core values of

honest, loyalty, perseverance, and compassion that will prepare students for life beyond our

walls. Once a Tiger, Always a Tiger.

The vision and mission of Maynard High School will be central to the development and

tracking of the campus improvement plan. Each goal will align with the vision and mission in

order to track progress toward the vision and mission. The following outcomes will be

tracked as goals on the campus improvement plan.

Outcome 1: ​Maynard High School will increase all student achievement through rigorous,

research-based instruction by utilizing progressive teacher professional development, data

 5

from teacher evaluations and student assessments and collaboration within weely grade-level

meetings and department PLC meetings. In order to achieve this outcome all teachers will

input Curriculum Based Assessments 2x each 9 weeks of instruction, participate in weekly

grade level cluster groups to discuss instructional strategies and receive coaching for

classroom instruction, participate in weekly department PLC meetings to discuss data and

next steps to drive instruction, track student progress on a “Meets Grade Level” list to

monitor the progress of students toward a student goal and evaluate teacher goals according

to the evaluation rubric, discussed and monitored through weekly walk-throughs and

observations.

Outcome 2:​ Maynard High School will recruit, develop, and retain highly-motivated,

culturally diverse personnel and enhance employee effectiveness and retention through

quality, focused professional development optimizing student engagement and learning. In

order to achieve this outcome, Maynard High School will implement the TAP (Teacher

Advancement Program) method of teacher evaluation with fidelity, actively recruit quality

teachers and seek out and develop on-going, research-based professional development.

The new mission and vision statements were developed with a student-centered focus on

educational achievement goals, campus priorities and input from all teachers and staff and

agreed upon by students.

Collaborating for Data

In order to effectively measure achievement of outcomes, collaboration between all

stakeholders within the school will be a priority. Meetings will take place between and among

the various stakeholders 4 times each 9 weeks of teaching. Each week, campus leadership will
 6

meet as an Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) in order to discuss leadership coaching goals,

walk-throughs and evaluations in order to monitor and adjust administrator practices. All data

will be collected according to the TAP rubric for instructional practices after a rigorous

calibration of all administrators and instructional team members to ensure validity.

Instructional decisions will be made during these meetings as well as tracking progress toward

campus improvement plan outcomes.

Each week, grade level Cluster meetings will occur in which teachers are presented

with new instructional strategies and coached by administrators according to outcomes on the

campus improvement plan. The ILT team members will help teachers develop lessons that

incorporate the new learning, participate in teaching of the strategy to students and evaluate the

strategies effectiveness along with the teacher. Additionally, teachers will participate in

department PLC meetings in which they discuss data and next steps to drive instruction, track

student progress on a “Meets Grade Level” list to monitor the progress of students toward a

student goal and evaluate teacher goals according to the evaluation rubric, discussed and

monitored through weekly walk-throughs and observations.

Four times within a 9 week teaching period, administrators and grade level teachers will

meet with parents in order to discuss campus goals, current assessments and progress for their

student according to the outcomes on the campus improvement plan. According to the National

PTA, parental involvement in their child's education leads to greater student achievement and

self-confidence (Brooks, 2019). Campus administration will also curate a list of available

family resources to sponsor each meeting by providing information, resources and, if possible,

a meal. Community partners will be invited to showcase at each meeting in order to integrate a

program much like “Communities in School” in which local community organizations partner
 7

with our campus in order to provide services to our students such as mentorship, training for

jobs/volunteerism and demonstrations of special services they provide.

Productive Family Relationships

As a product of the frequent parent meetings, administrative leadership will solicit

opportunities to provide necessary resources and services to parents in order to foster the

relationship with parents that will be necessary for reaching all mission and vision outcome

goals. One of these resources for families will be a Curriculum Night in which teachers are able

to present student learning from the 9 weeks and spotlight student growth. According to

ASCD, an educational service organization, providing this type of event for parents opens the

lines of communication between parents and teachers because parents will have a baseline

understanding of the expectations of their students in each teacher’s classroom (2018).

Additionally teachers will be required to make personal contact with families inviting

them to school events through phone calls and emails. Teachers will make 4 positive phone

calls home each week in order to foster a positive relationship with parents. Within our

school-wide discipline program, parents will be invited to attend positive behavior support

collaboration sessions when their student requires intervention for behavior not consistent with

the student code of conduct which ensures students the best possible environment for achieving

their academic goals.

Productive Community Partnerships

The Communities in Schools program will be implemented by soliciting community

partners to provide services and resources to parents. Services and resources will include the

local food bank, access to social workers and services, job preparation and training programs
 8

and mentorship opportunities within the school day. The national program partners will serve

as mentors for students labeled as at-risk or in need of emotional support in order to achieve

their academic goals. Students will meet with their community advocate weekly or bi-weekly

in order to provide services, counsel with students and track their academic progress goals.

According to studies done by the Communities in School program, 86% of students who

participated in the program in the 2018-19 school year made progress toward at least one

academic goal, 90% of students made progress toward SEL goals and 95% of students

graduated or obtained a GED for graduation (Communities in Schools Databook 2018-2019,

2019).

Public Advocacy

In order to publicly advocate for our campus, the principal and administrative assistant

to the principal will manage all social media communications via the one campus Facebook,

Instagram and Twitter page. This way the public advocacy is monitored for its message in

relation to the schools mission, vision and campus improvement plan. Opportunities to

spotlight student and teacher success will be regularly posted and included in local newspaper

publications. Each grade level will be required to participate in one community service project

that directly impacts the neighborhoods and community members within our attendance zone

in order for the impact to be felt close to the school community. This will help build a positive

community relationship with the campus.

Additionally, the administrative team will participate in positive phone calls to parents

and community partners when the opportunity arises. Such examples could be a student

reaching an academic goal, student recognition for hard work, student achievement in the arts

and CTE courses and personally thanking community partners for their impact on student
 9

success within the school. If funds are available, a Communities in Schools awards and

recognition banquet will be held in order to thank community partners and acknowledge

success for each student involved in the program.

 10

References

Brooks, A. (2019). Experts Discuss the Importance of Positive Parental Involvement in

Education. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from

https://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/education/blog/parental-involvement-in-education/

Communities in Schools. (2020). ​Communities in Schools Databook 2018-2019​ [Ebook].

Retrieved from

http://file:///home/chronos/u-7783155f39ecab7bec1b4213ffecc7918dee3ec5/MyFiles/Do

wnloads/cis-databook-2018-2019.pdf

Fay, J. (2011). Creating a love and logic school culture. Golden, CO: Love and Logic Institute.

Grant, J., Richardson, I., & Forsten, C. (2019). Feature. Retrieved 10 December 2020, from

https://www.aasa.org/schooladministratorarticle.aspx?id=14482

Nurturing Productive Relationships Across Your School - ASCD Inservice. (2018). Retrieved 10

December 2020, from

https://inservice.ascd.org/nurturing-productive-relationships-across-your-school/